June 08 Issue - Employee Monthly Magazine

My View

Dick Watkins: Workers are key to safety programs

Photo by Dixon Wolf

One of the things I always have been passionate about is my strong belief that people can accomplish almost anything, anywhere, and do it safely. This has been true throughout my 48-year career, which includes working at four Department of Energy sites over the last 17 years. People are the key, and management and workers together can create an open, productive environment that ensures the mission is accomplished in a safe and efficient manner.

It has been my experience that one of the best processes for bringing organizations together is the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). The Laboratory's VPP efforts have really only one goal, and that is to support safe and secure mission accomplishments through worker involvement. I sincerely believe the workers should drive the safety programs. A critical part of our VPP efforts centers on the Worker Safety and Security Teams (WSSTs). These teams are comprised of workers and management and provide a means for us to engage all Laboratory employees in an effort to prevent safety incidents and injuries. I am pleased to say that WSSTs exist at the institutional and all directorate and division levels, with 73 percent of all groups also having WSST representatives. As one of its Laboratory-wide initiatives, the institutional-level WSST recommended that the Laboratory focus on preventing accidents and injuries and set a goal of a 30-percent reduction from last year.

To date, based mainly on the efforts of Laboratory employees, the Laboratoryv has achieved a 17-percent reduction. But these are just numbers; it really means we have prevented another 84 injuries compared with the same time last year. For me, one injury is too many, but this is a great start.

If you are a member of one of the WSST teams, I applaud and support your efforts. If you are not aware of who the WSST members are in your area, I encourage you to get to know them and to get involved. Los Alamos National Laboratory is a great place to be, and I firmly believe that with everyone's help we can make this the place where all in the complex want to be.

—Dick Watkins, associate director of the Environment, Safety, Health, and Quality Directorate